So who doesn’t like books? Books can take you anywhere you want to go, anywhere in the world. You can read about any place on this earth, or with photo books you can even go see any place on this earth (or in the sky!). All in books.
You can learn about all manner of different cultures, music, clothing, animals, weather, religions, geology, ghost stories, or shoes or micro-organisms. You can learn how to wire a house, how to install plumbing, how to grow food crops, how to sew or knit clothing, how to paint a picture or take a photo, how to rebuild a diesel engine or how to trim your eyebrows. You can read made-up stories, or read real stories about real people. Who doesn’t like books?
Ok, I must admit that, in my youth, there were times when I didn’t want to read anything … I just wanted to play … in the house or out in the woods or down on the beach … who needs books? But these days, no longer in my youth, I love books.
Throughout most of my adult life, I used to read mostly science fiction and mysteries and westerns and other novels. These days, later in life, I read more non-fiction and historic novels, or scientific sorts of books, but I still enjoy fiction here and there. And I love “coffee table” books, books with photos in them, about places and people all around the world.
Friends of mine in the community where I live have started a small, informal book club. We pick a book to read, then most of us read that book, and then we talk about that book, or we talk about life or cooking or gardening or travel or world events. It’s a great group of folks … a great group of friends and neighbors.
I’ve been sharing my RV-ing, camping, adventures with you folks here. Thought I’d just share a little more about me too. Here are some of the books I’ve read in the past several months that I’ve liked a lot. And yes, I started reading several other books that I didn’t like. If I don’t like a book early on, I just put it down and proceed to the next book. Life is short … too many books! 🙂
Horse, Geraldine Brooks … a true story about a real horse, where most of the people in the book are real people too, but some fictional liberties are taken to flesh out the story.
Silent Scream, Angela Marsons … #1 in a series of novels about Detective Inspector Kim Stone in Britain.
Mad Honey, Jodi Picoult … I thought this novel rather tame at first, but it changes!
Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon … a 1932 novel by a Scottish author, considered one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century.
The Indifferent Stars Above, Daniel James Brown … a very well-written and fascinating historic novel about the Donner Party. Don’t miss the descriptions about how he researched the history.
The Ride of her Life, Elizabeth Letts … a true story of a woman (Annie Wilkins) and her horse (and her dog) and her last ride on her horse clear across the USA, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, in the 1950s. The author walked and drove the entire route first hand in order to research Annie’s journey.
Facing the Mountain, Daniel James Brown … during WWII there were entire Japanese families who were American citizens, yet who were incarcerated by the USA government, were never returned to their homes, were never repaid for what was taken from them, with no due process of law. There were also thousands of Japanese who fought (and died) in the USA Army supporting the USA. And there were Japanese who were conscientious objectors as were many people back then. Heroes, all of them. This was a tough read, but well worth it.
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, Sonora Reyes … a wonderful novel about a 16-year-old finding her way. Yes, the book is written for “youth” but it’s a great book for adults too, for anyone who cares about anyone.
Spilled Milk, K. L. Randis … a novel that spoke to my life … a novel, but written by a woman about her own life. Silence in our culture, in the world, about child abuse is so abusive in itself, the silence is so loud, the silence itself is so painful. Let’s learn, and let’s help. If this book is hard for you to read, then you’d best read it. It’s also a really good read … go get it.
Women Aviators, Karen Bush Gibson … the stories of 26 women from around the world who were the first women to fly, either professionally or “under the radar”. Interesting to me, I was at the store today and paid in cash and received change in coins. One of the coins was a USA quarter that had the image of Bessie Coleman on the reverse side of the quarter. In 1921, Bessie Coleman was the first African American to hold a commercial international airplane pilot’s license.
A Psalm for the Wild-built, Becky Chambers … book 1 of a 2-book series … centuries into our future, the robots of Panga developed “awareness”, and so decided to separate themselves from humanity in order not to contaminate or influence humans. But one robot appears one day to a human, having been sent to “check in”.
So many more books I’ve read and loved! But I’ll stop here with 11 books. If any of them interest you, take a look at them. They may be available online, but certainly they will be available through your local library. All of these books were available at or through my local library. Most libraries can order books that they don’t have from another library using an ILL process, Inter-Library-Loan. Ask your local librarian. 🙂
And please support your local libraries … they support us, they support kids and schools, they support education and illumination and a sense of human kindness … and science … and your taxes already pay for them so they are “free”. Go to your local library and meet the nicest people who work there.
Ok, I have to add one more book here … maybe just to round it out to a dozen books. But in looking at the list of books that I’ve ordered from my local library over the past year, this one stands out.
Fox and I, Catherine Raven … winner of so many awards it would be crazy to list them all here … just get it and read it. I’m not sure who wrote it … the fox or the woman. 🙂
Feel free to comment with your favorite books from the past year. I need more books to read! I have more to learn and more places to see and more people to meet. 🙂